Flock's Retention Cut Is a Default Change, and the Company Says So Itself

Flock Safety cut the default retention period for its automated license plate reader data from 30 days to seven, and told Gizmodo in the same exchange that agencies can move the number wherever they want ^[2][4]. That makes this a change to a configuration default rather than to what the product can do, which is the distinction that decides whether anything changes for the people driving past the cameras.

The company also says it recommends that jurisdictions pick the seven-day window ^[3]. Asked about that recommendation, a Flock spokesperson told Gizmodo: "Law enforcement agencies can extend or reduce that window. Every community will continue to choose the retention period that fits its public safety strategy and adheres to local or state policies." ^[4] The statement names no upper limit. A default governs the customers who never open the settings page; the agencies with the strongest appetite for long retention are, by definition, the ones most likely to change it.

The arithmetic is real as far as it goes. Seven days is 23 days shorter than 30, roughly 77 percent off the out-of-the-box window ^[5]. It is also fully reversible per customer ^[4].

The same shape shows up in the new "Evidence Mode," which Flock says lets police preserve specific ALPR data as evidence for an active investigation in cold storage ^[6]. The ACLU wrote that if Evidence Mode triggers retention of any ALPR data that gets searched, the mode "could indefinitely retain all the ALPR data Flock collects and shares nationally," making the retention problem worse ^[7]. Flock told Gizmodo that Evidence Mode "only retains hit result data that law enforcement agencies determine may be evidence in an active investigation" ^[8]. The binding constraint there is an agency's own determination, not a product limit.

On sharing, a city can now restrict the case types other agencies may access its data for, which Flock described as giving "communities more control over data sharing while preserving collaboration where policies align" ^[9]. The abuse-prevention package expands "Audit Assistance," which automatically flags abnormal activity for administrative review and which Flock says will be required for all law enforcement customers by the end of the year, plus proactive lockouts of flagged users pending administrative approval ^[10][11].

The precedent for guardrails that depend on officer input is not encouraging. Flock previously shipped a tool meant to automatically block impermissible searches, such as tracking a person seeking an abortion, which happened to a woman in Texas, and it proved easy to circumvent ^[12]. The Register-Guard reported a case in which an officer entered "hehehe" as a search reason and it was approved ^[13].

None of this touches false positives. Gizmodo notes that in Milwaukee last week, police stopped highway traffic and drew guns on two people wrongly linked to a homicide case after a Flock camera flagged their plates ^[14]. The announcements followed contract cancellations and residents physically removing cameras ^[1], and were framed by Flock in an August 13, 2026 post as trust earned through action, with updates from CEO Garrett Langley ^[15].

Worth watching: whether Flock ever publishes the distribution of retention settings actually in force across its customer base, whether "hit result data" gets a written definition, and whether the Audit Assistance mandate lands by year end ^[10].